Funny he should tweet that. As much as anything what I like is how fresh Jorginho will be for the back half of the season. I know that's not the point of the thread.

Whats everyone's take on Rice? Think at the prices being talked about £90m in one report, i would steer clear. I would love a more physical option in midfield, but I dont think he is a starter for us personally, and I think there are some big questions about whether he is good enough technically to play through the press against the biggest teams in the biggest games. Thats something I havent seen him do too much yet since West Ham generally sit deep and play on the counter. 

So I don't see him ahead of Jorginho, or Kova regularly, but he is fantastic ball winner, strongas an ox, his passing range is quite good.

I wouldnt be disappointed to see him come here, he brings some intangibles like leadership and determination to the squad, but I would hold off for year or 2,  and see if he price drops as his contract runs down.

He would strengthen us. 

Sticking point is the pricetag, and if it's worth it overall. 

Depends what Tuchel wants to do and who might potentially move on.

We have Jorginho, Kovacic and Kante, who are all basically "first choice". Plus Gilmour who will be wanting more games, if he's not loaned out.

So if we brought in Rice, you'd think we'd have to move one of those 3 on. In which case, perhaps we could do a deal with them, sending Abraham the other way or something to knock a lot off the price.

He has a lot of potential going for him. He might be the Matic replacement we sorely missed

I think we would be daft to miss out on this chance, and it would be one we would regret in years to come. He is exactly the player we need currently.

16 minutes ago, Deino said:

He has a lot of potential going for him. He might be the Matic replacement we sorely missed

If he stops roaming as much he's the type of player that would fit right in. If not there must be good options for the same price or lower.

41 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

If he stops roaming as much he's the type of player that would fit right in. If not there must be good options for the same price or lower.

That's down to coaching. As long as Tuchel remains on the ball, I'd argue any decent talent can make it. It's just a question of can that person add more to the team

Need to try and make this happen, more of a complete midfielder tha Kovacic and Jorginho and with a much higher ceiling.

If we want to become a force in the Premier League again we need to sign him, if we pass and hang our hopes on Kovacic and Jorginho again we’ll get the same output that we’ve always got with these 2.

34 minutes ago, 2211 said:

Need to try and make this happen, more of a complete midfielder tha Kovacic and Jorginho and with a much higher ceiling.

If we want to become a force in the Premier League again we need to sign him, if we pass and hang our hopes on Kovacic and Jorginho again we’ll get the same output that we’ve always got with these 2.

Couldn't agree more about Kovacic and Jorginho. I would like us to go for Frank Kessie instead though. Much cheaper (1 year left on contract), just as strong and solid in his defensive game, much better on the ball and faster.

Could definitely have done with him today. Just a shame that price tag is so outrageous.

Cant see him moving in the summer.

3 years left on his contract. I reckon WH won't panic sell at a lower price until he has 1 year left. I don't think we can do 2 years without a proper DM so it's buy him now or get someone else.

The price just puts me off, i expect it puts clubs off too. I think they will wait to he has only 2 years left and the price maybe a bit lower and WestHam will want to sell.

To work out if we’re likely to sign him we’d need to establish that he meets our signing criteria. Is he a) overrated or b) quite good, but his best attributes would be wasted as we don’t play a system or formation that he can play in.

I'm obviously in a minority but I think he's a bit overrated and over priced. I think we could do better for the money.

Regardless, if they think Rice is the answer and the player they feel the team needs, then they need to go after him. I understand not wanting to be drug over the coals trying to sign him, but I also don't want to see reports about West Ham valuing him at 70 mil and we've offer 32 (seems to be our favored go to price) and then increase our offer by 1.5 million until it's the last week of the window and we've signed the Davide Zappacosta's brother's best friend's uncle's dog's runt's owner's cousin for 9 mil.

If you could sign him by including Tammy Abraham in the deal then I think we should go for it. 

Otherwise, nah. Need to be throwing that sort of money at signing Kane, Haaland or Lukaku. 

If we sign 2 big name players this summer, he should be one of them. Kante will age ( despite still very good), Jorginho is not the answer, Kovacic seems to be up and down few times a season, Gilmour needs to go on loan next year. With another 50+ games next season, we will need another starter in the midfield. Throw in Tammy ( who will probably score 20 goals fom them), should be able to do a deal.

4 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I'm obviously in a minority but I think he's a bit overrated and over priced. I think we could do better for the money.

There might be more talented people out there but at least with Rice you know that he will perform well in the premier league since he is already playing in the league versus the risk that comes with signing foreign talent. Not advocating for us to turn into Brexit Fc but given we signed a lot of foreign players that failed to repeat the good seasons they had out of the club, it wouldn't hurt to throw some promising local talent like Rice into the mix this summer.

Rice is good, but it’s annoying people speaking about him like he’s all of a sudden making us title contenders. We have an array of attackers that haven’t scored more than 6 goals in the league all season so maybe we should be looking at that rather than what I personally think is a very good midfield. 

 

18 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Rice is good, but it’s annoying people speaking about him like he’s all of a sudden making us title contenders. We have an array of attackers that haven’t scored more than 6 goals in the league all season so maybe we should be looking at that rather than what I personally think is a very good midfield. 

 

He won't, just part of the puzzle to make us more competitive, Rice alone won't do it,

We need a regular goalscorer.

Hope we replace Jorginho with im

Abraham would go for 40m easily. The thing is, is it really worth including him in the deal with cash on top?

Wouldnt we be better off selling him for that and then add 10 or 20m, and make an offer for Rice?

60m looks a lot better than Abraham and 20m.

I think it will be tough to get him this season with westham qualifying for Europe. 

I say tap him up now, reach a contract agreement for 2022. & make him a marquee signing for next season when he has 2yrs left. West Ham can’t demand more than £50m then.
I would still sign another midfield player as we are still light in the middle of the park, and I doubt Kante can be trusted to stay fit. I would be looking at cash strapped Ligue 1 for, a long term replacement for Kante. Fabregas has recommended Tchouameni, Bruno Guimarães at Lyon is a hell of talent, Camavinga at Lille has one year left, Boubakary Soumaré has one year left, and Bissouma at Brighton is itching for a moved. Any of  those are attainable for under £50m, sell Jorginho next season with Rice coming in for him.